May 4 - Albuquerque to Safford, AZ - 390 miles

Finally - the time has come to be on the road to Mexico!

Our first day was a good one.  We rode west and southwest from Albuquerque, through Quemado, NM, Springerville, AZ and down the southeastern border of Arizona.

To go into Mexico, we are going to the border crossing at Douglas, Arizona and Agua Prieta, Mexico.  So, Safford is on the way to Douglas.

Riding from Albuquerque down to Quemado, our route took us along Highway 117, on the border of Acoma Indian Reservation.  Along this road are spectacular white sandstone cliffs on one side and a very large black lava flow on the other side, so it is very scenic.

Then on to Springerville, AZ, at the start of the mountains of the Mogollon Rim and White Mountains.  Going south from Springerville is about 120 miles of great riding, with the three things that make motorcycle touring such a pleasure - beautiful scenery, excellent road surfaces, and lots of curves to ride.  That is all available in abundance on Arizona Highway 191.

The ride is through pine forests, dotted with spruce, as the elevation rises to 9,100 ft. - Yes, Arizona has some high mountains in its southeast!  We did see deer on three occasions, either on the side of the road or just into the forest.  The forests seemed beautifully green to us, after riding through very dry grasslands in New Mexico and Arizona where we did see one range fire on our way.  The drought in the Southwestern U.S. is very severe.

We had ridden this Highway 191 once before, and knew it had many, many curves.  So this time, I was determined to count the number of curves in the 120 mile length.  In the first 50 miles, there were 152 curves, with many of the long "sweeper" type which lasted a couple of miles with excellent road surface (which would allow speeds as high as you could wish).  At the end of that section, we stopped at the Hannagan Meadow Lodge for lunch and chatted with the owner.  While we had thought the forest was extra green, he said they were in a drought, and that at this time of year in a normal year they would have a foot of snow on the ground (9,100 ft. elevation), instead of relatively green grass.

Then, the next 70 miles produced 635 curves!!  Wow, what a great highway for motorcyclists!  This road is on the top of ridges much of the way, and has unparalleled views of wide ranging mountain ranges.  Hard to believe Arizona has this type of mountain ranges in its southern portion.  There were no guardrails, so we did have to be careful on lots of curves where the drop from the road to canyons below was easily 500 feet.

All in all, the day was a great start on getting to Mexico.

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